Mass Effect: Legacies
by CronaAlbarn48
Summary: 50,000 years ago there was a galaxy spanning race. Their ruins are spread out across all known space. They built the Relay network and the Citadel and left us technology that allowed us to explore the stars. No one knows what happened to them but we do know their name. They were Humanity. They shaped the galaxy before they disappeared. This is Codex Entry Basic Knowledge of humans.


**ACCESSING...** **WELCOME ADMIRIL J. SHEPPARD.** **ACCESSING RECORDING #1367.** **ACCESSED. YOU MAY BEGIN RECORDING.**

It's over. The last of our worlds is burning. We fought for 200 years but it still wasn't enough. Those fucking squids have killed everyone. Those kf us that are left are fleeing for Andromida. It wont do them good. Turns out they can track Eezo. Who knew? It wont be long now. Harbinger is probably hunting The Fleet now. 3 million humans thats how many we have left in The Fleet. Thats how many humans are left.

Your probably wondering how this all started. Well im not going anywhere so i might as well tell you. 762 years ago on Mars we discovered the first sign of alien life. In 2138 we discovered a Prothean ruin on Mars. The first sign that we weren't alone in the universe. We would later find out it was an observation post to study our primative ancestors, back when we were still learning how to socialize, before tools and fire.

The World was shocked. Old religions lost followers and new ones poped up every week. Weak government collapsed as people rushed to secure everything they could. The stock markets crashed and riots took place in every city. Everyone from Politicians to Military officers to regular civilians began to fear an invasion. Bunkers were built and stuffed with supplies like food and water. Money lost it's value as people began hording goods. It got so bad that many governments began to enforce Marshall law. As days turned to weeks and weeks to months things calmed down. No aliens where invading and slowly the world began to go back to normal. Then the first of the messages of the data began ro get translated.

We learned of the Protheans, of Eezo, of Biotics, and FTL. Most importantly we learned of the Mass relays and how there was one in orbit around Pluto. Naturally the leaders of the world desided to activate it. One problem thou, our fastest ship would take years to reach it. So instead we took what we could from the data and built the first Eezo powered ship. 3 days later we were at Charon. We were at the relay.

At this point, 3 years after the discovery of the ruins on Mars, it finally set in that we were not alone out there. So in response to this the major nations of the world united to for a supernational government under the command of the U.N. Security Council. With the first ship having been built, and the world united, the relay was activated. The shipship know as the UNS Explorer was hurdled lightyears away at several times the speed of light to another side of the galaxy.

After that humanity now had a goal, to explore and colonize the stars. To find the Protheans. Every resource was used to build ships, colonies, space stations. Every world that was colonized, every relay opened, it was all used to futher exploration.

We found more ruins. Sometimes it would be cities, sometimes ships, sometimes beacons, sometimes relics. But you know what we never found? The Protheans. 100 years after the first ruin was discovered we found The Citidel. A massive space station at the center of the relay network. It was there we found the first Sentient life forms. The Keepers. They gave the exploration team a heart attack when they just poped up after The Citidels arms were opened. We studied them for years and what we found out was this. They were nothing more than slaves, biological machine's whose olny purpose was to maintain the station. Their creators where no where in sight.

We always knew that the relays and Citidel were not made by Protheans. Different architecture is what gave it away. After the first 100 years of exploring and discovering the Citidel we had our first major problem. The Earth centric government that ruled humanity was now dealing with mass rebellions across its territory. Every Major world wanted representation in the human government. From Shanxi to Eden Prime. Everyone wanted to have their voice heard. Others wanted to simply be free of the UNC or The Coalition for short. They wanted to be free from Earth. In 2256 the Human Galatic War began. 348 worlds fighting each other in a bloody civil war that seemed to never end. Of the 348, 127 rebelled. 30 years of direct fighting and the last rebellion was crushed. To stop future rebellions the UN was abolished as the ruling government, to the dismay of the earth based government, and it was replaced by the System Allaince with the Citidel as it's capital. Worst mistake we ever made.

After the war humanity would once again begin exploring this time as a far more united humanity then in the past. We searched system after system. Activated relay after relay but we never found anything more than ruins. 200 years later and the entire relay network was explored. While most of the galaxy was still unkown since it wasn't connected to any relay it would take years if not decades to simply reach some star sytems.

2467 more than 300 years since we first found the Protheans we finally found out their fate. A dead Prothean was found in cryo on one of our worlds but it had a beacon with it in its base. We learned of the Reapers, of the trap of the Citidel. So we did as we humans always have done in the face of an immanent threat. we militarized. Our population of 338 billion now had to deal with mandatory conscription. The clock was ticking and we were running out of time. We built hundreds fleets, thousands of ships of all types amd classes. From the Chernobyl Class 1.5km. Heavy Assault Carrier to the Washington Class Light Stealth Frigate. Massive Space Stations where built to act as ports and ship yards. Every planet, every system was equipped with Ground to Space Rail guns and missle platforms. Massive bunkers were built into mountains and under cities. Even Ice and Ocean worlds were colonized with cities under the surface. Millions of orbital guns were installed and every relay was fortified. While the System Allaince prepared for war millions fleed to unexplored regions outside the relays. Stations were built in nebulas and a Fleet was sent to Andromida. We did everything we could to prepare for their arrival.

We knew where they would appear. We had an idea of when. We even knew of how they did it. The Protheans altered the Keepers so they would have to send someone to manually open the Citidel relay. Then on December 13th, 2700 the first of their ships appeared.

We gave it a proper human greating as a fleet of more than 30,000 thousand ships opened fire at it simultaneously. It was enough firepower to destroy a star. If it had hit. The slippery bastard performed an immediate ftl jump to the station. we had no time to stop it fron turning it on. We long since abandoned the station. after realizing it was a death trap that saw millions of galactic leaders die on it the top brass didn't want to allow anyome of importance on the station. When we discovered indoctrination this proved to be a brilliant move.

The Vanguard was destroyed but the relay activated. We knew it sent a message to its masters. We sent one to ours. Before the day was over more than 1 million ships had surrounded the Citidel relay and its surrounding relays. It wasn't enought. 3 weeks of fortifications as billions picked up their arms and manned battle stations, forts, ships, and bunkers across every world we owned. The Arks were launched and stealth stations went dark all in an effort to preserve humanity in case we failed to stop the Reapers. Then the relay sent forth the first of its hord. Then another and another, until thousands of Reapers began to appear from the relay. our fleets were ready. Problem was so were theirs.

Its was a race whose only opponent for that last few centuries where rebels and priates versus a Fleet of advanced biomechanical hive minded ships with more than 2 billion years of experience exterminating life. It was a massacre. Centuries of preparations, billions of lives and credits, the best shielding, hulls, weapons, and A.I. taken from the corpse of the Vanguard and others like it found in ruins across the galaxy, were no match againt the Reaper horde.

Well thats not true, we killed thousands of them in the Battle of The Citidel. For everyone we destroyed they destroyed ten of us. Our Carriers met theirs as pilots ans drones fough against the Reaper fleet. The battle lasted 2 weeks and the Reapers slowly gained more and more of a foothold in the system slowly driving us back as we were forced to evacuate damaged ships. Any crew caught behind enemy lines was dead. Sometimes the reapers would bring life pods in. We would learn they were turning survivors into husks inside their shells. 2 weeks and the last allaince ship was forced to abandon the System. total ships lost 13,000 of various Classes not including fighters, bombers, or other small craft. We killed an estimated 9,000 Reapers.

The next 80 years of fighting was hell for both sides. The first time the reapers made it planetside they deployed the husks and we learned what happened to survivors. Since we had total Conscription laws everyone in our society was a soldier even if it was only for the 5 years minimum. We made them bleed for every inch of soil they took. When they discovered the underground bases they simply gassed them. Turns out they only need a mostly intact corpse to make a husk. seeing as our underground cities where just giving them even more ground troops we began to take to the wilds, both in space and planet side, where ever we could. They had the numbers. 2 billion years of harvesting life to make ships meant that even if only 1 was made each cycle that ment they had at least 40,000 ships.

With those odds we thought we could win. Turns out most cycles gave them at least a dozen ships. They only every enter the single digits for a harvest in the case of major military resistance like we were doing. Before the attack we had more than 10,000 systems spread across the galaxy, from these sytems we sent forth the full might of humanity. For a time it worked. Then the first relay shut down with a fleet of 3,000 allaince ships against 15,000 Reapers. Not one made it out alive. This pattern repeated itself 8 more times begore we wised up. The Reapers refused to split up into fleets of less than 1,000 and when they turned off a relay we knew that system was lost. all we could do was wait for it to reactivate and fight the Reaper fleet again and again.

After the first 80 years of fighting the last of our major fleets was destroyed. all we had left was a 1,343,514 ships. sounds like a lot but considering they are spread across the galaxy with no way of regrouping besides activating a relay, which we can't do, and pushing to the Citidel. We knew the Space half of the war was all but over.

35 more years of fighting and more than half of our worlds have been lost. Humanity once numbered in the Trillions, now is down to 40% of our pre Reaper population. Not for a lack of trying mind you. If you couldn't fight then you worked or breed. Cloning was used to replenish manpower in the field and machines did all work that couldn't be done by a human. Drones quickly replaced pilots in space as we couldn't train them fast enough. We were losing and the Reapers knew it. the next 90 years were a game of find the fleet as the Reapers systematically exterminated every settlement they found only every pausing to harvest the survivors or when we nuked them. They really didnt like that.

We gave it our all but it wasnt enought. We killed more than 65,000 Reapers, more so than any before us besides the Leviathans. Yes we know of them. The creators of our greatest enemy. They tried to help us but they only thing they could do without being exterminated themselves was stop the indoctrination. If they hadn't this war would have been over more than a century ago. Our leaders would have died on Citadel and we would be crippled. Doesn't me we like the bastards they still unleashed this hell on us. One by one our worlds fell. One by One our fleets went dark. what was left of Highcom has desided to evacuate and flee to dark space. Try to settle a new galaxy. It wont work. They can track Eezo and they will track the fleet. Without Eezo we will never outrun them. With it we can never hide from them. SpecOps has taken to leaving data caches in Eezoless bunkers deep underground surrounding our remaining garden worlds both natural and artificial. All in preparations for the next cycle. One world named Ran has dextro based life, our remaining scientists have left a cache of tech there in the hopes of the local sapiens there will discover it. From what i heard it has our knowledge on Programming and A.I. on its moon. We know that another hold out did the same with a world called Thes. Only they directly interfered in their evolution. If this happened anywhere else we have no clue. We can only hope that the next generation of life does better then we did.

It worked the Ran prob confirms that the Reapers are leaving it be. Whether it's to allow the new race to grow or they simply didn't find it they left Ran alone and went straight to the next system. It will be a few millennium before the Race of Ran grows into a space fairing race or even picks up tools but that bunker was built to last. the best quantum computer we had powered by thermal energy to both hide its minimum power output and Its EM signal. And since there is no Eezo in it the Reapers cannot track it.

 **ALERT REAPER FLEET DETECTED TWO MINUTES TILL CONTACT.**

Damn they found us. Well it was a matter of time anyway. ill send this stealth prob to Ran the old fashioned way. 50,000 years should be enought time for it to get there. Well i guess this is it. If this survives, if someone can find and translate it, prepare for the worst fight your race will ever have. They show no mercy regardless of age or state of health. when they come, and they will, fight till the last man. Becuase even if you lose you set the next guy up for the knock out. The Reapers are down several thousand ships. My only regret is that we didn't kill them all. This is Admiral J. Sheppard of the Last Fleet of Retribution signing out.

A.N. I will probably not continue this but i will leave this up as a challenge for anyone who wants to try it. I only ask that you tell me so i can read it myself. So basically this is mass effect in which humanity was alone in the galaxy 50,000 years after the Prothean extinction. The Races of the original trilogy will rise 50,000 years later. Basically its a what if story in which humanity replaces the Protheans as the mysterious ancient race that vanished 50,000 years ago. All that remains of the human empire is ruins and wrecks scattered across the galaxy. What this changes is up to you will the galaxy discover the fate of Humanity and prepare, will nothing have changed in game except that humans are gone and have replaced the Protheans, will the galaxy survive withouth humanity? That part is up to you. All I've done is remove humans and now the future of the galaxy is up to the remaining races. Now on to Ran and Thes. What 2 human like races exist within mass effect that are described in this story. its obvious but ill tell you anyway. The Quarians and Asari both have some special treatment by the remnants of humanity, or at least their ancestors did. Whether thats basic data left for them or genetic engineering is up to you. But they are the legacies metioned in the title. I left it vague so that you authors could make up the lore, history, world for yourselves. This is Crona signing out. peace.


End file.
